Contract Bridge

OBJECTIVE OF CONTRACT BRIDGE:  The objective of the game is to score points by making bids, or by defeating the opposing players’ bid. The team with the most points wins.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4 players

NUMBER OF CARDS: standard 52-card

RANK OF CARDS:  A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2

RANK OF SUITS: Spades (High), Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs.

TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking

AUDIENCE: Adult


INTRODUCTION TO CONTRACT BRIDGE

Contract Bridge is another name for the game BridgeThe addition of the word contract refers to the contract or bid players makes after the deal. A contract is a decalred number of the tricks that team believes they will win, 6 tricks + X = bid, where X is equal to an additional number of trick. A bid must also include the suit.

During the auction process, partners share information about their cards with each other. This includes the strength of their hand and the diversity of suits. The partnership that wins the bid, or bids the highest, are the declarers. Each player will take turns playing single cards in the tricks. Declarers will attempt to match or exceed their bid or contract. Defenders will play in order to keep the declarers from fulfilling their contract.

HISTORY OF CONTRACT BRIDGE

Contract Bridge is the belongs to a family of trick-taking games descended from Whist. Apparently, Bridge is the American pronounciation of the word biritch, which is also referred to as Russian Whist. Russian Whist’s documented origin is from a Russian community in Instanbul, predating the 1880s. As Bridge-Whist spread to the UK and US, a new form of Bridge emerged- Auction Bridge -in 1904. Contract Bridge emerged from innovations to Auction Bridge that were introduced by Harlod Stirling Vanderbilt. The scoring was changed in order to make the game more interesting. Following these adjustmetns, the game spread like wildfire, becoming the most popular version. However, currently the most popular form of Bridge played in tournaments is Duplicate Bridge. 

Nakoa Davis

2 thoughts on “Contract Bridge”

  1. Kamloops is hosting the Canadian 55+ Games in 2022 which includes Contract Bridge. I am guessing that the rules would follow the Rules for Duplicate Bridge. I am assuming that the Duplicate rules would apply to talking, coaching, leads out of turn, reneging, insufficient bidding, etc.
    Is there some material available that would rule on these concerns?
    Bill Lee

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